Death under Socialism: Heroics and Post-Heroics

Daniela Koleva (ed.). Death under Socialism: Heroics and Post-HeroicsLanguage: Bulgarian with summaries in Enlish

The way we die reveals the essential qualities of the way we live. Could there be then something like “a socialist death“ to correspond to ‘a socialist lifestyle'? Undoubtedly, death is a universal biological fact free from the impact of ideologies, faiths, and political regimes. However, death gives rise to an incredible number of cultural reactions that do not simply indicate its importance, but also how profoundly it has been enmeshed with conventions, normative expectations, rituals, symbols, etc., which — unlike the biological fact of dying — undergo significant changes over time. How then did the Bulgarian Communist Regime “domesticate“ death? What became the new sanctity; with what new essence was death endowed under the impact of official Communist ideology? How was “socialist death“ of, and how was it adjusted to the Communist mega-narrative? And how was “common“, “unheroic“ death considered and controlled by authorities, especially in a society where religion had been pushed to the margins and deprived of its traditional function to provide answers to existential questions?

The book comprises the academic outcomes of the seminar papers and debates of Centre for Advanced Study Sofia's first discussion series, Existential Socialism, and aims to provide some answers to the manifold ways death under Socialism was conceived and thought of.